How YOU can become a freelance writer in 2020!

I’ve written a few times about my journey to becoming a freelance writer, and over the past few years, I’ve been inundated messages about how to get into the industry. After all, who doesn’t want to be able to work for themselves, writing in the comfort of their PJs?

For ages, I shied away from sharing too much, as I just didn’t feel qualified. I suffer from imposter syndrome pretty badly, and anything that I ever achieve is always attributed to luck, and never the actual hard work, blood, sweat, and tears that I put into it. Who else can relate?!

However, last year, my amazing friend, and client, Bex came to me with an idea to launch a course that would help other bloggers make the leap into freelance writing. Bex started life as a blogger, before moving into the world of freelancing writing (and hiring yours truly – so you know she’s got taste!) and now runs a pretty impressive international content agency with full-time writers, freelancers and actual real-life clients based all around the world!

Between the two of us, we realised we actually had a lot of knowledge and some pretty unique perspectives. Bex as a writer, then a client herself and someone who has had to do terrifying things like pitch to big wigs in order to get work. Me as someone who has freelanced alongside uni, alongside a full-time job, exclusively, and now, alongside having a baby. I can offer advice to students, bloggers, and mamas alike.

The idea began to snowball, and we decided to create a 5-day free course for those undecided people who wanted to see if it was worth investing in the full course. There’s nothing worse than paying for a course, only to realise that the subject matter isn’t for you, or you don’t like the way it’s delivered. This way, people could get to know us (and hopefully fall in love with us, because we are a delight!), and then, if they felt like they were up to the task, they could move on to the full course and gain access to more specialised knowledge.

We had a soft launch last year, and due to a long string of unfortunate events (which may or may not involve Count Olaf…), we had to pause the 30-day course halfway through. We were heartbroken. Life had well and truly gotten in the way, and anything that could go wrong had gone wrong. We retreated for several months and tried to work out the best way forward for the business.

Sadly, that meant that Bex had to step down, as not only had things in her personal life gotten very complicated, and her health became a real issue, but her business had blown up, and several new clients had started demanding even more work. On the one hand, this is amazing from a financial point of view, but between all of this and studying for her MBA, it means that Bex didn’t have a spare 5 minutes in her day, let alone a few full days to dedicate to B2B.

Luckily, the bulk of the hard work had been done, the course was written, and the content filmed, and so anyone who joins us on the next round of classes will still benefit from Bex’s expertise, but not her witty banter on live streams quite as much!

We’ll kick off with the first free 5-day course between 13th – 17th January, where you will join the Facebook group for that course. Each day there will be a video to watch, a short worksheet, and two tasks – a mini task and a bonus task for those of you who are overachievers. There will be open discussions and a place where you can cheer each other on, or ask me questions as we go.

You don’t have to do everything on the day it’s set, it can be totally flexible. In fact, it’s really great time-management practice for when you become a freelance writer. The work needs doing, but without someone micromanaging you, or breathing down your neck, how will you manage your time?

From here, those of you who have done the course and decide that this is the path for you can sign up to the 30-day ultimate course, which will cover everything you need to know to become a freelance writer – and more!

The format will be the same, with videos, tasks, worksheets, and discussions, but everything will be more in-depth. Each week will cover a different area, and each day will dig deeper into that.

Week 1: Presence and portfolio

Week 2: Pricing

Week 3: How to pitch (and win!)

Week 4: Everything you need to know about freelancing (from taxes to self-care)

The idea being that by the end of the month, you’ll know where to pitch, how to pitch, and what to pitch. You’ll know what you want to charge and how you want to receive the money (although a truck full of cash is frowned upon!).

You’ll learn:

How to turn your love for blogging, writing, content, and whatever else floats your boat into a full-time job from two women who now turnover over £250,000 a year doing just that!

The real nitty-gritty of what you need to be doing to bring in the clients; finding the right jobs, pitching and winning jobs, setting your pricing, building your portfolio, and how to turn it into a full-time career. I’ll even share some of the best jobs and contacts I find for you!

How to scale the business so that you can build your own team and basically make money while you sleep (or feed the baby or spend some quality time with your friends or just watching Netflix)!

Real expertise, advice, motivation, and a shoulder to cry on when it seems too tough or imposter syndrome kicks in. I’ve been there; I get it, I’m here to help you through.

So, you can join the group here or drop me a message on the social media platform of your choice if you want to be added to the free course, ready for the 13th January.

I really love and believe in this course. There’s plenty of work to go around, so I’m excited to share my knowledge with others and get some more good freelance writers into the world.

Despite drowning in imposter syndrome, I have been being paid for my writing for around six years, and I’ve written for around 100 different publications and websites in various formats. Also, I’m really bloody supportive, so if there’s anyone you want holding your hand through this – it’s me!